It's Election Meeting Time in Poland

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CRACOW, Poland, March 2—“Professor, Kaczmarek can't do everything!” a steelworker shouted during an election meeting at the Lenin Steel Works near here. The worker listed various positions that had been held by Jan Kaczmarek, Poland's chief scientific adviser. Then he continued his attack.

“He's not such a genius to be able to do all those jobs,” the worker said. “Among us Poles are a lot of smart people. Let the professors do the professor jobs and let others run for Parliament.”

Professor Kaczmarek, a former rector of Cribow University, joined in the laughter filling the meeting hall. He is scientific secretary of the Polish Academy of Science and chairman of a new committee for science and technology. He was elected to the Central Committee of the Communist party in December and is now a candidate for Parliament.

Hundreds of Meetings

The election meeting, at Nowa Huta, near Cracow, was one of hundreds being held to prepare for the selection on March 19 of a new Parliament. The elections, called a year ahead of schedule, represent the last major administrative change of the new Polish leadership in its bid to modernize Polish life.

Edward Gierek, the Communist party leader who assumed power after the 1970 economic riots, has promised major reforms. He has said that the most important, including possible changes in the constitution, will require new legislation.

The election is, being presented as a major event. Election information centers have been set up and workers are being called to meetings, as at the steel mill, to meet the candidates.

At the mill workers meeting, there were calls for increased cultural activities, a two‐month vacation, part of it for study, modernized research facilities at the plant and a broad range of municipal improvements for Nowa Huta and Cracow.

Pollution Is Charged

One man said that the steel mill was violating antipollution laws every day. He said that only Katowice, at the hub of the Polish coal industry, was dirtier.

“Let's fill production quotas,” he said, “but not by being a burden on those around us.’

Professor Kaczmarek and another local candidate, Tadusz Holuj, a writer, listened to complaints and suggestions for nearly two hours, then replied to them. The meeting had the atmosphere of a campaign stop in the West, except for one thing: here the results have largely been determined.

Polish voters will be handed ballots on election day containing a'single slate, the National Unity Front. There are about 50 per cent more candidates than seats, however, offering sonic choice.

Nine names are provided on a ballot for six seats, for example. Voters who cast their, ballots without marking them, the usual situation, will be, voting for the top six candidates. Those who want to select one of the bottom three must do so in voting booths.

Few Likely to Take Action

Relatively few Polish voters are expected to make this visible gesture, although propaganda campaigns calling for voters to show their support for the front by not using the polling booths have not been repeated this year.

The National Unity Front consists of members of the Communist, Democratic and Peasant parties. Officials here do not deny the dominant role of the “leading” party, the Communists. They also dominate the committees that select the candidates and the smaller groups that select the committees.

Some Westein observers have asserted that the selection process was even less democratic than in previous years, with Warsaw party leaders assuming some of the seleotion roles that had been handled in the past by their regional colleagues.

On the other hand, only 169 of the 625 candidates nominated for the 420 seats are former members of Parliament. This represents a considerably higher turnover than in the past. The last election, in 1969, saw 263 former members returned to the chamber.

According to an influential Polish official, Mr. Gierek and his aides absorbed more of the selection power than had been expected to insure the election of reform‐minded candidates against the opposition of more conservative party members.

Professor Itacrmarek, who represents the more technocratically‐oriented Gierek regime, alluded to continuing opposition within the party when he replied to the workers, at the Lenin mill. He Said that “we have faced opposition, and continue to face opposition,” in charting a new course for Poland.

He said 1971 was a “test year,” one in which economic and social correction had to be made quickly. Now, he said, Poland was about to embark on long‐range reforms —although without abandoning the role of Centre Planning, he stated.

A large part of Polish society, he conceded, had lost faith in such planning. The way to restore confidence, he said, was to. plan Poland's economic and social goals more realistically than in the past.

As for holding too many jobs, he told the room full of workers, officials and executives, “I'm only paid for one.” However, he did not specify which one.